Part 16 (2/2)

Bronwyn smiled. 'He was such a good boy.'

'Who loved his mother. Always.'

A hurrying paramedic manoeuvred the Doctor firmly to one side, catching hold of the stretcher's handles. His colleague took the other end and they hoisted Bronwyn off the beach and into the waiting ambulance.

The Doctor closed the doors behind them and watched as the ambulance roared off through the village, lights whirling. Bronwyn's rejuvenation had been an unexpected bonus. As he had hoped, Ali's readjustment of the Cynrog transmitters had tapped into the fears and 163 neuroses of the adults of Ynys Du, not the children. Instead of fantastic monsters, the nightmares were of a far more mundane nature.

'Tainted by the trivia of the real world,' as Peyne had put it. Without the imagination of the children to sustain it, the monster had simply ceased to exist.

He glanced up at the smudge of grey smoke that trailed into the blue sky from the cliff top. The fire in the rectory had raged all night. There would be no traces of the Cynrog machinery by now. He crossed to where Rose sat on the sea wall, shaking her head in disbelief. Ali was perched next to her.

'I just came down the stairs and she was sitting there, fast asleep.'

'How did old Bronwyn become pretty again?'

Ali had her head c.o.c.ked to one side, squinting at the Doctor. He tried to look casual. 'Well, the Cynrog transmitters were still working flat out until the moment they blew up. As soon as the monster was finally solid, they were designed to switch frequencies and suck the life force out of you lot to rejuvenate Mr Morton and his friends. When Peyne started to triangulate on Bronwyn's psychic signature, looking for the final piece of Balor, the machinery somehow got its polarity reversed. Instead of rejuvenating Morton and the others, it look their their life force and rejuvenated Bronwyn instead.' life force and rejuvenated Bronwyn instead.'

Ali frowned and nudged Rose. 'Does he always talk like that or do you get him to speak English sometimes?'

Rose laughed. 'Nah, he's always like this.'

'Of course, the machinery was also operating on similar frequencies to the TARDIS, so there's a possibility that she had a hand in it somewhere. . . '

'The TARDIS. . . ' Rose looked at him quizzically.

'Yeah, well, she does like to. . . interfere sometimes.'

'Right. I wonder where she gets that from.'

'I'll tell you another thing. . . ' The Doctor hopped up on to the wall next to Rose, whispering into her ear. 'Bronwyn's pregnant.'

'No way? Another Jimmy?'

'Could be.'164.

'But isn't everything gonna just start up all over again? Doesn't she still have a bit of that Balor thing inside her mind?'

'Not any more.' The Doctor tapped the side of his head. 'In here. Ooh, nasty little bit it is, all buzzy and angry like a big wasp. Gonna have to give myself a mental enema when we get back to the TARDIS.'

'Eeergh!' Rose and Ali both grimaced.

'Come on, Ali!' The Doctor bounded off the wall, catching her by the hands. 'Rose and I have got equipment to strip out of a lighthouse and some Cynrog to send on their way, and I want to buy you an ice cream before we go.'

Dai Barraclough puffed and panted as he took the final few steps on to the cliff top.

'What have you dragged us all the way up here for, Hardy?'

Ali glared at him. 'I told you. I've got something special to show you.'

'It'd better be worth it.'

'Shut up, Dai.' Billy Palmer threw him an angry glare. 'If Ali says it's special, then it'll be special.'

Ali smiled at him. She liked Billy Palmer.

The rest of the gang were squatted down on the gra.s.s at the cliff edge, staring out at the jagged rocks of Black Island. The sun was high in the sky, sending silver highlights dancing over the waves. A fresh breeze blew in from the sea, swaying the tall gra.s.s and flecking the rocks far below with foam.

'What are we looking for, Ali?' asked one of the twins. Ali glanced at her watch. 'You'll see. Any moment now. . . '

With a loud rumble, something emerged from behind the lighthouse in a blaze of light, a silver shape skimming over the water before lifting higher and higher into the blue sky.

The children watched open-mouthed as it curved above them and then, with a flare of dazzling light, streaked away towards the horizon, the roar of its engines sending seagulls shrieking into the brilliant blue.

Ali s.h.i.+elded her eyes from the sun and smiled.165.

The Doctor and Rose stood in the console room of the TARDIS, eating their ice cream cones, watching on the scanner screen as the silver shape of the Cynrog s.h.i.+p slowly made its way out of orbit, accelerating away from the Earth.

'You've sent them back to their war, then?' Rose sounded disapproving.

'Yeah, but by the scenic route.'

'How scenic?'

'Oh. . . about. . . forty or fifty pa.r.s.ecs out of their way. Should take them a couple of years at that speed.'

'A couple of years.' Rose looked shocked. 'Can they survive that long in that sardine tin?'

'Course they can! Lovely little stasis capsules in that thing. They'll sleep all the way home! Mind you. . . ' He tailed off.

'What?'

'They might have a few bad dreams on the way.'

'Dreams?' Rose raised a quizzical eyebrow.

'Well, nightmares if you want to be strictly accurate. Just enough to ensure that they won't fancy coming back.'

'Oh yeah, and what do creatures like the Cynrog have nightmares about?'

The Doctor just smiled.166.

AcknowledgementsGrateful thanks are due to Justin, my editor, for refusing to take no for an answer and for endless encouragement and problem-solving during the writing of this book. And to Ian Grutchfield for convincing me that saying yes was the right thing to do. Thanks also to the usual suspects, who kept me sane during the process: Karen Parks (x) Sue Cowley and Steve Roberts (and their p.u.s.s.y cat) Steve Cole (for belly-dancing) Moogie and Andy Tucker (Baz lives again!) Robert Perry (where are you?) The Boys from the Model Unit (for Beers, Badgers and BAFTAs) Soph and Sylv (without whom. . . ) and Christopher, David and Billie (for bringing it back for a new generation). 167 About the Author.Mike Tucker is a visual effects designer who, after twenty years at the BBC, now runs his own company, The Model Unit, out of Ealing Studios. Having worked as an effects a.s.sistant on the original series of Doctor Who, he has been the Miniature Effects Supervisor on the first two seasons of the new series, overseeing the team responsible for (among other things) the destruction of Big Ben, the Daleks (and their Emperor) and K-9.

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